Category: Visualization

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Cathenge DC -In Proposal to the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities – July 2025

Would you like to see Cathenge installed as public art in SW DC?

Support artist David Normal’s goal of installing Cathenge in “Linear Park” the park in the roundabout at the terminus of Maryland Av. SW in DC SW, Ward 6.   

Cathenge DC is in proposal to the DC Commission on Art and Humanities for consideration in the “Public Art Building Communities”  grant program that awards funds annually for new public art throughout Washington DC.  The grant deadline is July 22nd 2025.

 As a 3D printed sculptural installation, Cathenge represents the leading edge of ambition for the artistic application of large format additive printing.  The sculptures are a multi-media fusion:  3D  printing, LED lighting, lasers, sound, vibration and electronic interactive sensing are integral to the effect and provide visitors with a direct and palpable experience of the mystical Space Cat consciousness.

Visitors to Cathenge experience the majesty of the Catoliths through their interactive sound and lights.  People moving within the circle of cat statues are detected by LiDAR beams.  Soft harmonic purring tones and synchronized pulsing lights are generated which respond directly to the movement.  These interactive light and sound effects evoke the power of Holofelinity.

 

Cathenge DC Visualization

 

Proposed Site of Cathenge: “Linear Park”, Maryland Ave. SW, Washington DC

 

The Catolith.  Mystic cat statue of the Ancient Space Cat.

 

Cathenge at Patricia’s Green, Hayes Valley, San Francisco

Currently, “Cathenge DC” is being proposed to the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities for their “Public Art Building Communities” (PABC) grant which provides funding for public art installations that foster and strengthen community throughout Washington DC.

Background:

Cathenge was on display for 16 months, from October 2022 to March 2024, in downtown San Francisco.   Sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission, it was displayed at the prestigious Patricia’s Green sculpture site in the fashionable Hayes Valley district of SF near the Davies Symphony Hall. 

Cathenge began as a Burning Man Foundation funded “Honorarium Project” that  was presented at the annual Burning Man arts festival in the Black Rock Desert of Northern Nevada.

“Cathenge DC” will be a newly revised and improved version of the recent SF installation that features great improvements in the sound and light interactivity of the installation the SF Standard called “Insanely Popular”.

Press:

“Cathenge” Glowing 9-Foot Tall Cat Sculptures Come to SF

https://sfstandard.com/2022/11/17/cathenge-comes-to-sf

https://www.timeout.com/usa/news/a-massive-cathenge-is-being-unveiled-in-san-francisco-with-glowing-feline-monoliths-112522

About the Artist:

David Normal is a painter, animator, and installation maker based in the SF Bay Area.  Normal got his start making fliers for the hardcore punk scene in the Bay Area in the mid-80s.  Normal began contributing to the Burning Man Festival in the mid ‘90s. Normal’s accomplishments were recognized in a solo exhibition of lightbox-murals at the British Library in
London in 2015, “Crossroads of Curiosity”. In 2022 he created “Cathenge”, the Cat Temple, for the San Francisco Arts Commission. This public art installation was displayed at Patricia’s Green Park in Hayes Valley, San Francisco from October of 2022 through March of 2024.  Currently David Normal has newly established a studio in West Oakland for producing 3D printed installation art.

@postnormalism
@cathenge_cat_temple
https://davidnormal.net
http://cathenge.net
http://crossroadsofcuriosity.org

More info about Cathenge can be found on the website:

About Cathenge

Note:  This proposal was begun in 2023, but couldn’t be completed in time for the 2023 grant cycle, so I am finishing it now, and hope to turn in the grant by the deadline on July 22nd 2024.

For the seriously interested:

Here is a link to the proposal draft underway.  You can learn all about Cathenge DC by reading the answer to the DC CAH questions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQRdIu3gWpKOtPPx0exW2Ae90d5NWgEmwjifdXFEkIjRX1wOIcRgYtXHhFwvdnMkXLf0X0A0RlL8Upc/pub

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Cathenge at Patricia’s Green, Hayes Valley, San Francisco (Completed Project – Now Exhibiting)

Cathenge is now completed and on display at Patricia’s Green in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. The culmination of over a year’s continuous work by artist David Normal, and intensive collaboration and coordination with a talented team of builders and technicians has brought Cathenge to life. Below are some photos of the newly erected installation.

Below is an 3D visualization of the Cathenge Installation for Patricia’s Green. ADA (American Disabilities Act) regulations required that the tips of the star shaped pedestal upon which the cats are standing be truncated. Not only did this provide a more equitable and accessible experience, but it also improved the design.

Below are some of the plans and drawings used in proposing and designing Cathenge. Basically, these are the design strategies in place that have been refined by RBHU Engineering (Structural Engineers).

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Cathenge Scale Model at Decompression 2018

This was the initial 3D printed scale model of Cathenge. Printed by Christopher Christensen. This photo shows the model on display at Burning Man Decompression SF in the fall of 2018. My painting, “Succubus”, can be seen in the background.

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Catoliths and Interactive Solfeggio Sound Effects

The effect I’d like to achieve with the Catoliths is similar to a set of windchines. Motion detection creates the chiming of the Catoliths. Each cat has an infrared sensor mounted in its chin and facing downward. This creates a cone of interactivity wherein a visitor to Cathenge will hear the cats “intone” their respective notes. Additionally, triggering one cat will trigger notes in the other cats (ideally, this is a random or semi-random pattern).

Six Catoliths

Thanata = 396hz = DO = Tonic C = Saturn

Fortuna = 417hz = RE = D = Jupiter

Lyrata = 528hz = MI = E = Mars

Erotica = 639hz = FA = F = Earth

Lunata = 741 = SO = G = Venus

Solara = 852 = TI = A = Mercury

The above equivalencies connect each catolith to a specific solfeggio frequency. Above (396 – 852) is the solfeggio scale used in Gregorian chanting.

Gregorian Chant:

https://youtu.be/Ng9sSR7qBAE

 Because planets with larger eccentricities have a greater variation in speed they produce more “notes.” Earth’s maximum and minimum speeds, for example, are in a ratio of roughly 16 to 15, or that of a semitone, whereas Venus’ orbit is nearly circular, and therefore only produces a singular note. Mercury, which has the largest eccentricity, has the largest interval, a minor tenth, or a ratio of 12 to 5. This range, as well as the relative speeds between the planets, led Kepler to conclude that the Solar System was composed of two basses (Saturn and Jupiter), a tenor (Mars), two altos (Venus and Earth), and a soprano (Mercury), which had sung in “perfect concord,” at the beginning of time, and could potentially arrange themselves to do so again.

Musica universalis (literally universal music), also called Music of the spheres or Harmony of the Spheres, is an ancient philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies—the Sun, Moon, and planets—as a form of musica (the Medieval Latin term for music). This “music” is not usually thought to be literally audible, but a harmonic, mathematical or religious concept.

The idea continued to appeal to thinkers about music until the end of the Renaissance, influencing scholars of many kinds, including humanists. Further scientific exploration has determined specific proportions in some orbital motion, described as orbital resonance. – Ref: Wikipedia



Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

– Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice“